In a Knights Templar village in the Eden valley, this personable small hotel ‘goes from strength to strength’, reports a Guide reader in 2017.

New brooms Jamie and Jenna Shail have refreshed this Georgian manor house since taking over in 2016, but traditional values have not been swept away.

Amid the sublime sweep of a Grade I listed Georgian crescent, two converted town houses combine as one luxury hotel affording ‘magical vistas’ over lawns and public parkland.

‘The welcome is always friendly’ at Joanna and Mark Donovan’s ‘likeable’ country hotel in a former priests’ house dating back to the 13th century.

‘There’s lots of room to play and run around’ at this ‘pretty, rambling manor house’ in ‘fantastic grounds’ on the edge of the Cotswolds.

‘A quintessential country house hotel.’ The Quinion family’s creeper-covered manor house in mature grounds ‘combines the familiar features and decor of an earlier age with exceptional service’, writes a Guide reader, a frequent guest, in 2017.

‘The beautiful location, wonderful service and excellent food keep us coming back.’

Views of parkland and surrounding countryside stretch out from this Victorian manor, where ‘the ambience exudes comfort and encourages total relaxation’.

‘An ideal place to slow down and relax.’

‘There is much to like and laugh about’ at this utterly transformed Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house, in a ‘glorious setting’ in the Otter valley.

Guests in search of an ‘authentic, olde-worlde atmosphere’ find it in the flagstone passageways, huge fireplaces, wonky beams and creaky floorboards of this 15th-century coaching inn, in an ‘exquisitely preserved’ National Trust village.

In the rural Ribble valley, this extended Victorian manor house has basked in Michelin stardom under chef/co-owner Nigel Haworth for more than 20 years.

‘As delightful as ever’, reports a trusted Guide correspondent in 2017, of Adam Fox-Edwards’s former coaching inn–turned–sporting hotel near Dartmoor.

‘The Michelin star is well earned’ at Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s friendly restaurant-with-rooms close to the north Norfolk coast.

‘Stylish but informal, fun and relaxing – a grand job overall.’

A spirit of fun flits about Teresa and Kevin O’Sullivan’s cliff-top hotel, from the sub-tropical sculpture garden full of surprises (‘you feel like Alice walking into Wonderland’) to the ‘delightfully humorous artwork scattered throughout’.

‘You can hear the sounds of birds all around’ this converted 14th-century farmhouse.

‘The valley in which this inn sits seems to me one of the loveliest places on earth; from the back of the inn, the views of fells, river and parkland landscape are just about perfect. And the stillness at night is magical.’

‘Timeless standards of comfort’ keep guests coming back to this Italianate mansion ‘in a wonderful position’ on the River Usk.

Approached via quiet lanes bordered by hedgerows and dark-limbed trees, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s Victorian hunting lodge-turned-country house hotel stands in extensive grounds stretching to a lake on the River Irfon.

Overlooking a bay on the Argyll coast, Calum and Rachel Ross’s ‘friendly, good-value’ country house, next door to the exotic Arduaine Garden, is in ‘the most stunning spot’.

‘Everything is presented with care and style’ at Sally and David Ruthven-Fox’s small hotel on the ‘peaceful shores’ of Loch Sunart.

Arrive to a complimentary glass of champagne, at Laurence and Katie Mackay’s Victorian country house hotel on the Isle of Mull.

‘Everything is done with a smile and a bit of banter’ at Jean Urquhart’s ‘warm and welcoming’ bookshop-with-rooms, formed from a clutch of whitewashed cottages in this old fishing village.